Passion, Betrayal and Killer Highlights (8 page)

“Can I get you two anything? Coffee, tea? I think I have some ice tea left over from yesterday.”

“We’re fine,” Anatoly said. “I know you’re going through a lot right now.”

“Yeah, so is my sister,” I muttered under my breath.

Anatoly discreetly gave my arm a painful pinch and a little whimper escaped Bianca’s heart-shaped mouth as she sat down on the love seat opposite us. She lowered her head and looked up at me with misty blue eyes.

“As I said, I don’t blame you for hating me. I know what I did was awful. If I could take it all back—” Her voice caught and she looked away. “If I could just go back in time and make things right…”

“What did you mean when you said all this is your fault?” Anatoly asked.

“I started the chain of events that led to Bob’s death.” Bianca laced her fingers together and scrunched the hankie between her hands. “I knew getting involved with him was a mistake. Even if Leah was cheating on him…”

“Hello?”
I jumped to my feet. “My sister never cheated on anyone in her life. It was the scum she was married to who had a hard time keeping it in his pants!”

Bianca looked startled for a moment, then compassionate. “I shouldn’t be surprised that she didn’t tell you. It’s hardly the kind of thing one brags about. But she did cheat on him. It was her indiscretion that first brought Bob and me together. Both of us discovered that we had been betrayed by the people we loved and we sought solace in each other.”

I shook my head and opened my mouth to defend Leah against Bob’s lies, but Anatoly grabbed my hand and yanked me back down onto the couch. He cleared his throat and looked at Bianca. “Please continue. You were explaining how you started a chain of events.”

“Yes.” Bianca looked at me pityingly. “It started as just a friendship. I was at the bar at Boulevard waiting for a friend and he was there waiting for his associates to show up for a business dinner. He inadvertently overheard me while I was talking to my sister on my cell. I was telling her about what happened with Kevin—Kevin was my fiancé. He…he left me for someone else. When I hung up, Bob introduced himself. He told me he knew what I was going through because he was going through something similar—that was right after he had walked in on Leah in the arms of her personal trainer…”

“Are you kidding? My sister would rather die than get involved with anyone who worked at a gym.”

“Sophie, shut up,” Anatoly said calmly. He smiled again at Bianca and gestured for her to continue.

Bianca looked nervously between the two of us. “Well, we became friends, and the more time we spent together the more we discovered we had in common.” She fingered a delicate gold crucifix that hung around her neck. “When Bob first told me he was leaving Leah…”

Anatoly scooted forward on the couch. “When exactly was that?”

“Well, this was the first time he planned on leaving, so that was about nine months ago.”

My eyes widened. “Bob had this planned for that long?”

“Perhaps
planned
isn’t the right word. He had been thinking about filing for divorce long before he met me, but it wasn’t until he found evidence that Leah was continuing to be unfaithful that he decided to go through with it. Once his mind was made up he immediately made his intentions clear to Leah. That’s when we…became more than friends.”

Anatoly’s eyes darted in my direction, presumably to assure himself that I wasn’t going to interrupt Bianca with another tirade. Frankly, I was too stunned to speak. I never would have thought Bob clever enough to pull off this level of deceit. I knew damn well that the only thing Bob had made clear to Leah nine months ago was his refusal to help with potty training.

“As you know, Bob and Leah worked things out,” Bianca continued, “if only for the sake of their son. It was awful for Bob, and Leah’s insistence that they sleep in separate bedrooms didn’t help matters. Nonetheless, he was willing to stick it out so that Jack would be raised in a two-parent home. But what we had…it was so powerful, I just don’t think either of us knew how to resist it.” Bianca hesitated and looked at me. “I’m so sorry. I know how this must sound to you.”

“I really don’t think you do,” I mumbled, thinking about the bedroom Leah had shared with her husband for the duration of their marriage.

“Well, we just couldn’t take it anymore. We loved each other so much and we had to be together. Bob told me he was going to be leaving Leah and this time nothing was going to change his mind. And I…I know this is so awful, but I was overjoyed. I was so sure that we would have this perfect future, but I didn’t think of Leah, now did I.”

“I would say the answer to that is a big no,” I agreed.

Bianca nodded and looked at her petal-pink nails. “Bob had told me how delicate her mental state was. He warned me she wouldn’t take it well—and who would? Who could possibly be gracious in the face of losing Bob?”

She had a point. If Bob had left me I would have been too busy celebrating to be gracious.

“I just didn’t anticipate that our betrayal would push her over the edge,” Bianca continued. “And now look what I’ve done! Leah may have been the one to pull the trigger but I’m the one who set this whole thing in motion.” Bianca’s lower lip began to tremble. “It’s all my fault that the love of my life is dead!”

The really frightening thing about this monologue was that she actually seemed to be buying into her own bullshit. I tried to see her the way Bob must have: a soft-spoken, white, Christian, polished, naive girl with a pedigree and a knack for codependency. In other words, she was everything Leah was not.

Anatoly studied Bianca for a moment before speaking. “There’s evidence that indicates Leah is not the one responsible for Bob’s death.”

He told the lie so effortlessly that I almost believed it myself.

“There is?” Bianca’s tears momentarily stopped. “But she’s the only one that had any kind of motive. Bob was so gentle and thoughtful—no one other than Leah would ever hurt a hair on his head.”

“I would,” I whispered. But if Anatoly or Bianca heard, they chose to ignore me.

“What about your ex-fiancé, Kevin?” Anatoly asked. “Is there any chance he wanted to reconcile with you? Perhaps Bob was in his way.”

Bianca tucked her hair behind her ears and shook her head sadly. “Kevin proposed to his new girlfriend three months ago and the two of them moved to Boston. He could care less who I’m with. The only man who really cared about me was…was…”

“My sister’s husband,” I finished for her.

Bianca shot me a pleading look. “I want you to know that I don’t intend to contact the police. If they come to me I guess I’ll have to answer their questions, but I don’t want to make any more trouble for Leah. I know I’m as much to blame as she is, and I…I don’t want to take both of Jack’s parents away from him. I don’t want that at all.” She averted her eyes and her shoulders began to tremble. “All I really want is for Bob to be alive again.”

Anatoly sighed and drummed his fingers against the armrest impatiently. “Bianca, do you know for sure that Bob informed Leah he was leaving her this last time?”

Bianca nodded without making eye contact. “He came over here right after he broke the news to her. It was the last time…we were together.” She swallowed hard. “I can’t understand how he could be gone when just yesterday he was making love to me.”

I tried to swallow my disgust, but it was impossible.

“Did he say anything about the rest of his plans for that day?” Anatoly asked.

“He said he was going to work and then he was going to go home and pack. He was planning on moving in with me that night, but said he might not get here until late. I waited and waited, and when he wasn’t here by eleven, I turned on the news and—” She stopped herself and stared fixedly at the hardwood floor.

Anatoly cleared his throat. “Did Bob ever talk about anyone he disliked or who he felt disliked him?”

“Other than Leah?”

“Yes,” Anatoly and I said in unison.

“No, everyone loved Bob.”

Those were the same words Leah had used. I had a quick flashback of a
Saturday Night Live
skit in which the audience of a Broadway play came out of the theater and one after another recited in a monotone voice, “It was better than
Cats,
I’d see it again and again.” Maybe Erika was on to something with the brainwashing thing. Worse, maybe Bob had turned all the women he had contact with into San Francisco’s version of a Stepford wife. But that didn’t work because San Francisco’s version of a Stepford wife would probably be a drag queen.

“All right, I think I have all I need for right now.” Anatoly stood up, and Bianca followed suit. “May I contact you again if I have further questions?” he asked.

Bianca nodded. She looked at me and pulled nervously at the sweater draped over her shoulders. “Please tell Leah that I’m sorry.”

“I can’t imagine that your apology would mean anything to my sister.”

Anatoly took hold of my wrist. “We’re leaving now.” He pulled me toward the door, but I resisted.

“One more thing,” I said. “May I see the bracelet?”

Anatoly shot me a questioning look. I had forgotten to tell him about the Tiffany’s receipt Leah had found.

Bianca flushed. “You know about that?”

I fixed her with a cool stare. Bianca bit her lip.

“I’ll go get it,” she whispered, and retreated into the next room.

“What bracelet?” Anatoly hissed.

“Yesterday Leah told me she found a receipt for a six-thousand-dollar bracelet.”

“And I’m just hearing about this now?”

“It’s not like it’s important. The only reason I brought it up is that I want to see what it looks like.”

“Really,” he said dryly. “This isn’t about trying to make Bianca feel guilty about the gift?”

I shrugged. “It’s an added perk.”

Bianca reappeared with a wide gold bracelet that was covered in small, sparkling yellow stones. She cupped her hand and held it out for my inspection. I poked it gingerly with my finger. “Wow, Liz Taylor’s got nothing on you. Are these diamonds?”

“Yellow sapphires.”

“Huh, those suckers must have been on special or something.”

“He gave it to me to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the day we met.” Bianca’s voice took on a dreamy tone. “He got the date wrong by six and a half weeks but I never corrected him. It was just such a romantic gesture.”

Extravagant seemed like a better word for it. Still, Bob clearly had better taste than I had given him credit for. I pulled my hand away from the bracelet. “It’s amazing how profitable immorality can be, isn’t it?”

Bianca’s lower lip started doing its trembling thing and Anatoly grabbed my arm again. “We’re really going now,” he said, more to me than to her.

Bianca trailed behind us and watched glumly as we stepped onto the elevator.

“I can’t believe I allowed you to come on these interviews,” Anatoly muttered after the doors had closed.

“I’m sorry, but she messed up my sister’s life and I don’t really give a shit how sorry she is about it. She’s probably the one who killed Bob. I mean, if she loved him so much, why is she extending her apologies to the woman she believes to be his murderer?”

“That was a bit strange.” Anatoly stepped out of the elevator on the first floor and escorted me to the sidewalk. “Do you think there’s any truth to Bianca’s assertion that Bob tried to leave Leah nine months ago?”

“No way. Leah would have told me.”

“Are you sure?”

“Leah doesn’t suffer quietly. Ever.”

Anatoly sighed and looked back at Bianca’s building.

“What are you thinking?” I asked.

“I’m thinking that if the police end up talking to Bianca they’re going to think that she…”

“Has an unhealthy lack of cynicism?” I offered.

Anatoly laughed softly. “She is incredibly naive, but what I was going to say was that she comes across as being credible.” He looked at me and the gravity in his expression chilled me. “They’re going to think she is a lot more credible than your sister.”

I didn’t say anything, and Anatoly was wise enough not to push the issue. We mounted his Harley and rode to my apartment in silence. When he stopped the bike in front of my doorstep I muttered a goodbye and walked swiftly to the door.

“Sophie?”

I turned to see that Anatoly had gotten off his bike and was standing with his helmet in his hands. “I know this is hard, but for a moment I want you to pretend that you don’t love Leah. I want you to think about the things she’s done in the past and the things she hasn’t, and then I want you to tell me if you believe she could be capable of murder.”

I swallowed and turned away.

“Sophie, even if the answer is yes, I’ll still help you protect her.”

“Why?” I shook my head in bewilderment. “It’s not like you owe me anything. If anything, it’s the other way around.”

“Because,” Anatoly said softly, “I have a brother.”

This was news to me. Fifty million questions flooded my mind. Did he live nearby? Was he still in Russia? Or had they immigrated together to Israel but not to America? But it didn’t seem like the right time to ask.

“So about Leah…” Anatoly prodded.

“Right—Leah.” I thought about the woman who was my sister. I replayed the conversation we had had the afternoon before Bob’s death and then I thought about Brad Thompson. Brad was from Leah’s pre-Bob days and he had been the “love of her life.” She had assured me, our mother and everyone else who would listen that he was going to propose. And then it happened—the breakup. He told her that she was fun to mess around with but not nearly good enough to marry. I sat by her side as she cried into her pillow and listed off all the things she wanted to do to him, his car and his reputation. But when I had suggested that we get some of my male friends to start a fight with him at a bar and rough him up, Leah had been horrified.

“She didn’t do it,” I said slowly.

“Are you sure?”

I smiled and nodded enthusiastically. “I’ll admit that I had some fleeting doubts, but I know my sister. She didn’t do it.”

“All right, then. I’m going to do a background check on Bianca. Maybe she’s not as credible as she seems.”